Posted by John Lockwood on September 9th, 2006
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Today I began looking at A. B. Curtiss’ book, “Depression is a Choice”, which you can also get a feel for from Curtiss’ web site.
I’ve only sampled the first few pages to date, but the writing style is clear and direct, and the ideas compelling. Needless to say, the thesis is a bit of a controversial one, and given that I’m just getting into it and therefore not intending to review it just yet, let me just link to a more competent review and counterpoint by Curtiss herself. Actually I think that reviewer, though more thorough than me, is less probably less sympathetic than I would tend to be, but read on!
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My synopsis of Curtiss’ argument is that people can think whatever they want to, and by directing one’s thinking away from depression, one can short-circuit its otherwise intractable hold on one’s mood. This works because the mind can only focus on one object at a time. This certainly explains the strong effect I noticed when setting some goals, not only working concretely with the neocortex, but working concretely with the neocortex on something that is the opposite of the whole cognitive enterprise of depression.
Where depression denies choice over one’s reality, goal setting is an activity that — if anything — overstates one’s choice over one’s reality. One of the important caveats that the author of Mindtools’ Personal Goal Setting article gives us is not to focus on goals that are directly attainable and subject to our own choice (within certain preconditions like not dying today and the like, presumably):
Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. These could be bad business environments, poor judging, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
The choice to direct the mind away from depression is an action, albeit one on a mental level. Goal setting takes place with pen and paper, or software, so it is actively directing one away from a focus on depression. However, I do think that an important component of the whole process is making achievable and therefore reinforcing progress on small goals. There we have more action!
David D. Burns, M.D., in “The Feeling Good Handbook” (see above — this material is circa page 170 in my edition) discusses motivation and action in terms of a virtuous cycle. You don’t get motivated by willing motivation, you get motivated by some small action. The action then gives you motivation, and then you can take more action, and so forth.
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Posted by John Lockwood on September 9th, 2006
I recently set as a goal for myself to learn all I can about depression and motivation. This is because I found that as I actively began to examine my life and create goals for each area (i.e., take control of my destiny), I found this process very enjoyable and anti-depressing in nature.
I suffer from what (I believe) is mild depression. So no need to send the marines out or anything — I’m not going to cut my wrists with a sharp debugger or anything.
However, one of my first forays onto the internet brought this to light:
One of the most insidious aspects of depression is that there is a tendency to attribute the symptoms to other factors in our lives. A lack of enjoyment, motivation or increased irritability at home may be considered to be due to a (possibly non-existent) problem with personal relationships. Similarly we may start to consider changing jobs believing that it is the external environment that is responsible when in fact it is a treatable illness affecting our interpretation of the external environment.
What often happens is that in looking to our environment to find the reasons for what are symptoms of an illness, we try to ‘fix’ things that are not broken which can have a very real destructive impact on our lives. Obtaining an accurate diagnosis and getting the most effective treatment for you, will make an enormous difference.
That’s from the Types of Depression page over at DepressionNet.com.
Wow, bulls-eye. Isn’t that the story of my career over the last four years.
So then what can I say at this point about motivation and depression? Not much, I’m just at the beginning of my inquiry, but I do know that I seem to feel best when creating my own life rather than suffering from it. Yet it’s the same set of external circumstances either way.
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Posted by John Lockwood on September 8th, 2006
“It’s been my policy to view the Internet not as an ‘information highway,’ but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies.” -Mike Royko, as quoted on Instructional Resources for Chemistry Educators.
So if you’re reading this, whether you consider yourself Napoleon or Jesus, I welcome you.
I know you’re not really either. I know everything, because I’m god.
No, I’m not. Had you going there for a minute, didn’t I?
Anyway, bad jokes or not, sometimes I really do feel like this asylum atomosphere has a depressive influence. I think that the ethernet packets are leaking, and some unhealthy miasms are getting me.
Stupid miasms.
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Posted by John Lockwood on September 6th, 2006
Today I was working on the business plan for John Lockwood Associates, and thinking through how I would set up my IDX Broker site. I’ve used IHomefinder for years for real estate agent sites and like them a lot, but I didn’t think their broker sites would do what I wanted.
Along the way, I put a call in to the folks at IDXBroker.com and spoke to Chad, and Chad explained what his company does, which is some excellent integration work and design around IHomefinder sites — the sort of thing ParticleWave would be doing if we were in that business, more than likely. But what stood out from the conversation was how helpful Chad was and how much he enjoyed talking to folks about this technology. In my case, he even turned me back on to IHomefinder.
Clearly, Chad’s one of those great guys who puts his client’s needs first, so I wanted to just put up that quick link above and let people know. If you’re a real estate agent or broker in need of an IDX web site, you owe it to yourself to give Chad a call and see what he can do for you!
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